{"id":118088,"date":"2026-02-19T14:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/118088\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:40:08","slug":"kidspeace-riot-leads-to-charges-for-5-juveniles-state-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/118088\/","title":{"rendered":"KidsPeace riot leads to charges for 5 juveniles, state police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five juveniles were taken into custody and charged in an alleged riot at a residential youth treatment facility in Lehigh County.<\/a><\/p>\n

Pennsylvania State Police said troopers responded shortly before midnight Sunday to KidsPeace<\/a>\u2018s Wright House, 5300 KidsPeace Drive, in North Whitehall<\/a> Township. <\/p>\n

Investigators said they found multiple girls allegedly throwing items, attacking workers and stealing employee car keys. Four youngsters left the facility with stolen car keys, got inside an SUV and attempted to drive it, state police said.<\/p>\n

An employee reported at least one vehicle was rummaged through and moved from its original parking spot. <\/p>\n

Employees reported being outnumbered and having to retreat to a secure office, state police said. <\/p>\n

At least one employee was injured, suffering a large cut on the head, and was taken for treatment to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township<\/a>, troopers said.<\/p>\n

Several other employees reported being struck in attacks, according to state police.<\/p>\n

Five girls were identified as the alleged ringleaders of the incident, ranging in age from 11 to 17. Each was charged with riot, simple assault, disorderly conduct, harassment and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n

Robert Martin, director of communications at KidsPeace, couldn\u2019t immediately be reached for comment Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Martin previously told lehighvalleylive.com the organization cannot comment on specific situations involving individuals in its treatment programs, citing privacy regulations.<\/p>\n

KidsPeace is a private charity dedicated to serving<\/a> the behavioral and mental health needs of children, families and communities, according to its website.<\/p>\n

It has a history of dealing with runaway youths<\/a> and attacks on staff.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s incident remains under investigation by Pennsylvania State Police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five juveniles were taken into custody and charged in an alleged riot at a residential youth treatment facility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-118088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}